Following the announcement of the catastrophic budget cuts in the arts in Halbe Zijlstra’s letter published on Friday June 10, there have been many initiatives to support those institutions and (funding) structures that will be abolished in the new Cultural Policy plan. In the build-up to the debate in the Tweede Kamer about the proposed budget cuts on June 27, there is a need to unify these individual pleas and come together to discuss different strategies and actions of protest.

On June 23, at a ‘town hall meeting’ at the Stedelijk Museum, several speakers will talk about how they are affected by the budget cuts and, should these cuts be executed, the consequences of these measures for the preservation and presentation of the visual arts in the Netherlands. In addition to that, there will be opportunity to discuss which steps the visual arts sector should take in the coming months.